According to an article via BBC, they didn’t bring back the dire wolf. In a very broad and casual way, they basically just gave a gray wolf a Game of Thrones cosplay, genetically modified it, and called it science.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
The pups certainly look like many people’s vision of a dire wolf and the story has gathered global attention. So why is this scientific distinction important?
“Because extinction is still forever,” Dr Rawlence told BBC News. “If we don’t have extinction, how are we going to learn from our mistakes?
“Is the message now that we can go and destroy the environment and that animals can go extinct, but we can bring them back?”
So, while the headlines everywhere are “howling” about de-extinction, the real danger to many is wondering if we will stop caring about saving what’s left, thinking we can just CTRL+Z extinction later.
What are your thoughts?
